Royal Easter Show March 16th, 2010

“The Royal Easter Show” has been held every year since before I was born and always brings me those same memories of sweet sweet candyfloss and getting those delicious but tricky toffee apples stuck in your teeth.. The ghost ride terrified me. However most of these memories are from when I was about 8 years old (knee high) and I am ashamed to say I don’t think I have gone to the Easter Show since.

All that is going to change this year as I have finally decided to enter a hand-full of my paintings into the Royal Easter Show Art Competition. This is the largest open art competition in NZ and it just keeps getting bigger every year..

So making the choices is always difficult – but the first decision to be made was “stock or new??” and this time around I went down a different track than normal and decided to enter a few choice works that I already had on hand.

So after much deliberation amongst myself, friends and family the finalists were:

April and May (2 works from the 12 Months Collection) are  my entries into the “Open” category. I choose these paintings in particular as my 12 Months Collection highlights the expression of women throughout the year, and I felt that these two paintings resonated with the date of the show at the start of April. I feel these two paintings are both deeply introspective and describe for me that slowing that we feel in Autumn before the winter settles in.

Repose In Red (from The Nudes Collection) is to be my entry into the “Abstract” category. I really enjoyed creating this work because of the vibrant palette I got to play with and the beautiful contrast that developed between the depth of texture in both the woman and the background and the crispness of the wallpaper and those flowing black lines encompassing the whole work.

Rangitoto’s Fire (from The White Collection) is to be my entry into the “Reflections of NZ” category. I love this work because of the reminder that the majestic island floating in our harbour may look green and peaceful but it is still a full blooded firey volcano. I must admit that “Under The Mountain” also dug it’s claws into me as a child and whenever I imagine Rangitoto it is always seen in my minds eye with a red glow.

So for all those in Auckland over Easter Weekend (2nd-5th April) come on down to the the ASB Showgrounds to get another taste of those classic toffee apples (your dental hygienist won’t mind) and get thrown around in the Washing Machine a few times.. oh and have a nosy at hundreds of amazing paintings too. See you there!